Book Review: Angel Avenger by Tim Wickenden
Version: Free ebook from the author
Angel Avenger plays out as a police procedural in Berlin during the mid-1960s. It plays out like any period police procedural from anywhere in the world, with its similar processes, its odd characters, and its pursuits of blind justice for odd crimes committed against everyday victims. Except these victims turn out to be anything but everyday, butchers against humanity during a brutal onslaught during the late months of World War II during Russia's incursion into Nazi Germany.
As the story unfolds, one after another four men are kidnapped, beaten, disfigured, and then left to die in open public settings to be found by the Polizie (Police). Max, Oppi, and their team of criminal detectives in the Berlin Police hunt down the perpetrators, few clues left behind, trying to figure out who the victims are, why they were murdered, and who did it. The perpetrators turn out to be two clever people with no criminal past, bent on revenge for a horrible attack years before, triggered into action by sudden discovery of the victims still alive into a visceral overreaction. They are sister and brother who while clever plotters for revenge and cognizant what they are doing is wrong, have tipped beyond reason to do the unthinkable themselves. And so, a game of cat and mouse ensues to punish the four victims for past atrocities but stay ahead of the police long enough to exact revenge before getting caught.
Angel Avenger is told in the present tense, so you get the effect of witnessing Angelika and Christian doing the crimes while watching the police investigating in real time. It's as if you're there in the 1960s, not watching from the perspective of the 21st century. Lost in the fog of time, you are immersed with them, sharing in the experiences. You watch it unfold before your eyes.
It's a well-paced, well-told crime story. The main characters are likable and believable. The bad guys are bad to their core and deserving of their fates. Being that it took place in Berlin, action was a little hard to track. If that's the worst I can say, then Angel Avenger must be a pretty solid read, right?
Reading Angel Avenger, I learned a bit about this place in that time. And so, I would rate it an A for solving crimes against humanity in a humane way. I think, like me, you might like it, too.
